Dr. Alice Mühsam

Title: Dr.
Prename: Alice
Surname: Mühsam
Name of birth: Freymarck
Profession: Archaeologist, conservator
Birthday: 1889
Place of birth: Berlin
Date of death: 02/26/1968
Place of death: Spring Valley, NY
Married since: 1911
Married to: Dr. Kurt Mühsam (1882-1931)
Profession husband: journalist, writer, film critic, chief editor
Children: 3 (Ruth Marton, born 1912; Gerd, born 1913; Helmut, born 1914)
Education: Before 1911 private musical training and short spell of attendance at the Berlin State School of Music; 1922–28 prepares for external final high school examinations (*Abitur*); 1929–36 university studies (archaeology, art history) in Berlin; 1936 doctorate
Career: 1914–22 music journalist; 1936–38 lectures on art history in various Jewish educational institutions; 1940 emigrates to the United States, initially works as a cleaner in New York City; 1940–42 with the support of the American Association of University Women (AAUW) retrains as conservator at the Brooklyn Museum, later freelance conservator of ancient art; from c. 1950 German tutor at Columbia University with recommendation from Margarete Bieber
Memberships: German Federation of University Women (DAB)
Biographical literature: Margarete Bieber, “Alice Muehsam, 1890–1968,” *Art Journal* 27 (1968), no. 4: 398; obituary, *New York Times*, February 29, 1968; Ulrike Wendland, *Biographisches Handbuch deutschsprachiger Kunsthistoriker im Exil: Leben und Werk der unter dem Nationalsozialismus verfolgten und vertriebenen Wissenschaftler* (Munich: Saur, 1999), vol. 1, 447–8
Major works: *Attic Grave Reliefs from the Roman Period* (diss.; Copenhagen: E. Munksgaard, 1956); *The Sense of Form in Art: A Comparative Psychological Study* (New York: Chelsea, 1958 = translation, with Norma A. Shatan, of Heinrich Wölfflin, *Die Kunst der Renaissance: Italien und das deutsche Formgefühl*, 1931); *German readings II. A Brief Survey of Art From the Middle Ages to the Twentieth Century for Students of German and Fine Arts* (New York: Wittenborn, 1959); *Coin and Temple. A Study of the Architectural Representation on Ancient Jewish Coins* (Leeds: Leeds University Oriental Society, 1966)